Whitecaps disappointed with draw, respectful of Sounders

Here's some of what the Whitecaps had to say after their 2-2 draw with the Sounders:

HEAD COACH CARL ROBINSONThoughts on the match:“Yeah, very frustrating if I’m honest. The boys were fantastic from the first minute. I thought the first half we were absolutely phenomenal. We could have been ahead, weren’t ahead. They scored on their second chance, and then we fought back, but it was a very entertaining game.”

Did you get any explanation on the foul?“No.”

What did you see from your perspective?“I saw my captain jump for the ball in his penalty box and head the ball away.”

Thoughts on officiating:“I think my job is, this year since I took the job, was to try and put a certain way of playing, a style of playing in this team and I think I’ve done that. I’ll concentrate on my job, and that’s my job. I think you saw today that we’re going in the right direction. Obviously disappointed with the result, but the performance of some of the players was excellent.”

Thoughts on the atmosphere and rivalry:“Listen it’s great. I said to the guys before the game that you want to play in big games. I want to test myself against the best managers, and Sigi [Schmid] is certainly one of them. These occasions don’t come around too often. It’s the same obviously when we play Portland and things like that. It’s a special occasion, so don’t let the game pass you by, and we didn’t. It’s important for the growth of football here in Vancouver, and North America that that continues because it’s all about rivalries and if you get intense rivalries, and players wanting to win, and managers wanting to win. I think you saw that from both sets of players today, and certainly both managers.”

“I think the guys who haven’t played in a Seattle-Vancouver game before certainly got it today because both sets of supporters were excellent.

Thoughts on Koffie:“Yeah, it was probably his best performance. He’s been excellent the last three or four games for me. I keep saying to him that he needs to keep scoring goals. He’s a midfield player. Not just his goal, but I think he hit the bar in the first couple of minutes, and then could have nicked it in the end with two more chances. It was an all-around performance from him today, and he should be proud of himself.”

Thoughts on not scoring on chances:“It’d concern me more if we weren’t getting chances. Obviously we’re getting chances. We got to work at that, or do something about it. I’ve openly said we’re looking at trying to bring in players to help this group, and I’ll continue to do that, but the player has to be the right player or players, and if they are, then we’ll move forward with that. But the guys in there, I said I’m delighted with them today, and I’m proud of them. Erik Hurtado again, another fantastic goal and performance and we’re just moving in the right direction slowly.”

Thought’s on Erik Hurtado’s performance, goal and growing confidence:“Yeah, I think it is. People ask me about what’s the difference in Erik from last three weeks ago ‘til now and he’s a different player. Well I say no, he’s not a different player, he’s the same player, but his confidence has obviously grown. I think the supporters are finally seeing what he can do. I’ve seen that in glimpses last year while I was here as an assistant, and I wanted to give him that chance. I think players want their managers to have faith in them, and I certainly have faith in Erik at the moment. He’s doing himself a lot of good.”

Thoughts on Nigel Reo-Coker:“I’m not sure who I could have started at right back to be honest. I apologize for my voice. It shows how much I was shouting at the people on my team. He was great against Toronto for 120 minutes last week Wednesday. He was great today. He was powerful. He was driving. Marco Pappa is a super player, technically a very good player and Nigel was good. He’s a big part of this group, and I’ve said that all along and all the speculation about him. Nigel’s here and I’m delighted to have him.”

Is the take-away from the game the overall effort and not one questionable call?“I can only concentrate on what I can do. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do nothing about what’s going on today. I think you could all see it today. 20 odd thousand see it, so as much as I’d like to say certain things, I’ll talk about my team and I’ll continue to do that.”

Thoughts on battle level:“Yeah, it certainly was. They’re a good team. I’ve said that before the game they’re a good team, but so are we. Slowly we’re becoming a very good team. Two different types of teams, they’re very physical. They like to counter-attack. We like to counter-attack, but we like to try and keep the ball on the deck. We don’t have a big center-forward, as everyone likes to keep telling me, but we’ve got players who like to get down the sides and little give and goes, and things like that. So it was a contrast of two teams’ styles I think today, but I’m proud they matched the physicality because you know they are always going to be there, Seattle, and we’ve got to make sure we start to get there this year, and continue to get there and become a seasoned team.”

Playing after the yellow card: “When you get booked early you have to be careful about what you do, and you can’t create any fouls, so the manager told me I had a yellow card, so I should be careful.”

On playing a more offensive role: “The manager asked me to move forward a lot, and we can’t play with so many guys back, so I got the opportunities to score.

On scoring a similar goal in the past: “I think last year I scored against Chivas, same except the goalie went off his line to play the ball.”

DEFENDER NIGEL REO-COKERThoughts on the game: “It was unlucky today, but nonetheless I thought it was a great team performance, I thought the first 30 minutes were fantastic. It’s the best we’ve been all season, the tempo, the passing, the movement. Another day it could’ve been three or four nil for us and game done, but that’s football and I thought it was unlucky for us today.”

On the physical play: “It was a good physical challenge for us, a good physical test and I thought we rose to the occasion. We did very well, we showed we’ve grown in character we’re not a team of soft touch anymore.”

On the penalty call: “You know, you’re going to get decisions like that, the referee made a decision, and that’s what he thought was the right decision. At the same time, we’ve got to look at how we played as a team, and how we’re developing and that’s a very experienced team; and we’re a young team who are still gluing together, and we’re getting stronger with every game we play.”

On talking to the ref after the call: “It was more of a one way conversation really, and there wasn’t really any communication.”

STRIKER ERIK HURTADOThoughts on the match: “Really proud of the boys, we went down came back, just unfortunate.”

Thoughts on his own play:“Just getting the opportunity, and making the best of it right now.”

On using the game to prepare for Portland: “It was a disappointing result, but nowhere near disappointing performance. We played great, the fans helped us out, and we’ve just got to take the performance, and push that forward through this week of training and take that into the Portland game. I feel confident that our team will be confident on the road.”

On his goal: “Just linked up with Pedro, and Seba, really well and I had the space, saw Alonso coming towards me, so I acted like I was going to cross it and made them bite, and then chopped it again and just roofed it.”

On his growing confidence: “I’m getting the opportunity to play, and I’m getting the opportunity to hold players off. Andy O’Brien has been telling me a lot how to hold defenders off, and how to position myself before I get the ball, so that has a lot to do with it. I’ve just got to keep taking on what he’s telling me, and add that into my game.”

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